The Challenges of Parenthood
by Lexa20
Summary: What if Renfro got tired of waiting for Max and Alec to have a baby, and decided to make one?
1. Chapter 1

_Max and OC's apartment_

_Evening_

There was a knock on the front door of the apartment. OC opened the door to find a young Asian woman holding a baby in her arms on the other side.

"I'm looking for Max. Is she here?" The woman asked.

"Yeah, come in." OC told her "Max, you got a visitor." She shouted, then moved to the sofa and said. "You wanna take a seat."

"No thank you." The woman replied. Max came out of her room and did a double take.

"Brin?" Max asked shocked.

"Hey baby sister." Brin said with a smile. "I have something of yours." Then she held out the baby. "Take him, he's yours." Max gingerly took the baby in her arms.

"Brin, I don't understand, what..." Max started but Brin interrupted her

"Renfro, she got tired of you and 494's failure to produce a baby so she had the lab techs make one with both your DNA, and this is him. His designations 946. He's about 6 months old now. I got him out of Manticore when it blow and now I'm giving him to you. See you around baby sister." Brin told her before blaring out the apartment.

"Who's 494?" OC asked curiously.

"He's Alec." Max told her still staring at the door in a daze. "I need to call him, um could you please look after him while I call Alec?" Max asked as she looked from the baby to OC.

"Sure thing Boo, you call your boy over I'll take care of the little Boo here." OC told her taking the baby from her and going over to the sofa where she started to talk to the baby in a cute voice. Max picked up the phone and dialled Alec's cell phone.

"Hello." Said Alec's voice at the other end of the line.

"Hey Alec, its Max. I really need to see you; it's important can you come over please?" Max asked hesitantly.

"Yeah sure, I'll be right over." Alec replied worriedly.

_An hour later_

Max opened the door for Alec and stood aside to let him in to the apartment.

"So what's the emergency? Whoa is that a baby?" Alec asked spotting OC and 946 on the sofa. Max walked over to OC and took 946 in her arms and asked OC.

"Can you give us a minute?"

"Sure thing Boo, I'll go see what kind of baby supplies I can round up." OC told her before heading out the door.

"Max what's going on. Whose baby is that?" Alec asked curiously.

"Ok I'm going to tell you something that's going to be hard to hear, but I need you to listen and not interrupt. Can you do that?" Max asked nervously, then continued after Alec nodded. "Ok, this is 946. He's our son. My sister Brin came by about an hour ago and dropped him off. She said that apparently Renfro got tired of waiting for us to produce a baby, so she had the lab techs at Manticore make one, and here he is. Brin saved him when Manticore went down and she brought him here. He's about 6 months old. And that's all I know. So you should probably say something now."

"I...I need to sit down." Alec stammered making his way to the sofa. Then after a minute started to talk "Why didn't she bring him to you sooner?"

"I'd love to ask her but she just told me what I told you, passed me the baby and blurred out of here so fast I didn't have a chance to." Max told him sitting down next to Alec.

"Can... Can I hold him?" Alec asked gingerly.

"Of course, here." Max said passing over there son.

"He's so beautiful." Alec said staring at the baby. "Max, I'd...I'd like to be part of his life if you don't mind." Alec told her anxiously.

"Alec your his father, I'd never stop you from being part of his life. Besides in truth I could really use the help. There's so much to figure out." Max told him gently. "First of which being what are we going to name him. I mean we can't call him 946."

"What about Zack after your brother? I mean do matter what Manticore did to him you said your brother was a good leader and he took care of you all, plus he's the reason your alive right now. I'd like our son to be named after someone that strong." Alec told Max kindly.

"I'd like that. Zack it is." Max said looking at Alec with a new level of respect.


	2. Chapter 2: Figuring out

_Max and OC's apartment_

_Evening_

Max and Alec still sat on the sofa looking at Zack, who had fallen asleep in Alec's arms.

"I guess the next thing to figure out is some kind of system of who gets to spend time with him and when." Max said the nervousness returning to her voice.

"Or you two could move in with me. I mean I have a share room and that way we wouldn't have a complicated system and Zack could have a stable family home." Alec told her the nervousness in his voice matched hers.

"Do you really think we could make that work? Wouldn't we end up killing each other within a week?" Max said shocked by his proposition.

"We could make it work. Think about it Max doesn't you want him to have a proper family like we never had." Alec started begging. "Please Max just give it a shot."

"Ok, but you'll only try this if you promise not to bring home any girls, agreed?" Max told him sternly giving him a look that told him she was not messing around.

"I can live with that." Alec told her honestly. They were interrupted then by the door opening to revealed OC carrying a couple of bags. Alec passed Zack over to Max and went to help OC with the bags.

"I don't suppose either of you knows anything about taking care of babies, do you?" OC asked sceptically. Alec and Max looked at each other, both silently asking the other on for help, then see they were in the same situation they both looked back at OC. "Right, didn't think so. Ok, sit down Boos, Original Cindy's going to give you a lesson on baby care." OC told them, and Alec made his way back to the sofa to sit down next to Max.

_Jam Pony_

_Morning_

Max and Alec walked into Jam Pony the next day nervously with Max holding little Zack. They had spent quarter of the previous night getting Max and Zack moved into Alec's apartment. Another quarter trying to figure out all the things they'd need for Zack and how to get them. Now here they were and Max was wondering, not for the first time, why she had agreed to Alec's crazy plan in the first place. As they walked towards the dispatch desk their colleagues gave them strange and amused looks. As they reached their destination Normal was just getting off the phone, he looked up at them and his mouth feel open.

"Hey, Normal" Alec said in a pretend normal voice but Max could tell he was just as nervous about this as she was.

"Jumping George Washington is that a baby?" Normal asked in dazed and confused voice.

"Ah Yeah. Normal meet Zack, mine and Max's son." Alec told him proudly. "Normal, are you ok?" he then asked as all the blood drained from Normal's face and then suddenly Normal fainted.

"Well that didn't exactly go according to plan." Alec said look at Max who gave him a death stare.

* * *

Sorry its taken so long to up date but I've been experiencing some technical difficulties with regard to Editing on .


	3. Chapter 3

_Alec's apartment_

_Evening_

Max and Alec sat on Alec's sofa drinking coffee and finishing of the last of the dinner that Alec had picked up on the way home. Little Zack was sitting in the new baby carrier that Alec had 'acquired' earlier that day, happily blowing bubbles. Alec glanced at Max nervously. Max and he still had a lot to talk about. He had been thinking about it all day and had come up with an idea, but how would Max react to it.

"Max, I've been thinking…" Alec started only to be interrupted by Max

"That's a dangerous sport for you." Max interrupts with a little laugh

"I'm trying to have a serious conversation with you here, Max." Alec snapped at her

"Sorry, force of habit. You were saying." Max told him apologetically

"I've been thinking about what we're going to do now. I think it would be best if you move in here, till we can find a place that's big enough for the three of us. Also I don't want there to be any doubts about my intentions here. I want to be a part of Zack's life. A big part!" Alec told her firmly

"Alec, I'm not going to try and stop you being a part of Zack's life. As for us moving in I think you're probably right." Max replied in annoyed tone. '_How could Alec think she would try and keep him from seeing their son' _Max thought_ 'Their son.' _Max startled herself thinking this was the first time that she had thought of Zack as their son, rather than just the baby, it was a scary thought.

"Max, I…" Alec started but stopped himself as something hit his nose "What is that smell?"

"Oh god, I think it's Zack." Max replied holding her nose "You wouldn't happen to remember what OC said about changing nappies would you."

"Wait what? I'm not doing it!" Alec exclaimed, his eyes widening at the suggestion

"Hang on a minute, you're the one who was just saying he wanted to be a part f his son's life and now you don't want to do the simplest thing." Max confuted him angrily

"Oh if it's so simple why didn't you do it then?" Alec replied sarcastically

"Ok, ok, how about we do it together." Max offered, not really in the mood to fight about it

"Ok, um, we need the, um, changing mat." Alec stammered, lifting Zack out of the baby carrier

Max got up and returned with the changing mat. She laid it down on the floor and Alec laid Zack down on top of it. Alec then started to remove the nappy.

"Jesus kid, what are we feeding you to make that smell?" Alec asked covering his nose as he tried get the nappy sort as quickly as possible.

"We'll worry about that later, just get the clean nappy on quickly!" Max told him waving a clean nappy under his nose. Alec placed the nappy on Zack and then started fiddling with the fastenings.

"God, how do you close this thing?" He exclaimed


End file.
